#MODERATE INTENSITY EXERCISE HOW TO#

You're moving, but you're not huffing and puffing. Low-exertion aerobic activity can often involves moving repetitively at a slower, steadier pace: casual walking (where you can still hold a conversation), light yoga, biking at low-resistance, or leisurely swimming laps. The result? A hypothetical, healthy 40-year-old's heart rate should remain roughly between 54 and 90 beats per minute when engaging in low-intensity exercise. Sticking with the example above, if you're 40 years old with an estimated MHR of about 180 beats per minute, multiply 180 by. 50 to determine your heart rate range, Walker says. Low intensity is calculated as working at about 30 to 50 percent of your MHR. Now, once you know your personal MHR, you can use it to measure how many beats you should be striving for during activities, depending on their intensity. To determine what your body's maximum heart rate should be, subtract your age from 220.įor instance, if you're 40 years old, your estimated MHR would be about 180 beats per minute. 'The higher the percentage, the harder your body is working.' 'Exercise intensity is calculated as a percentage of your maximum heart rate during physical activity,' says Ben Walker, a personal trainer and owner of Anywhere Fitness in Dublin, Ireland. Knowing all this, the next step is to calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR): the highest point of intensity that you should be achieving during exercise. Just find your pulse on your wrist or neck and count the number beats for 10 seconds then multiply that number by six for beats per minute.Ġ2 of 04 Understanding Maximum Heart Rate and Workout Intensity If you don't have a monitor, however, you can do some old-school counting. Heart rate monitors make measuring your resting and working heart rate a simple task (smartwatches like the Apple Watch often have this handy function). If you're moving with high or vigorous intensity, you won't be able to carry on a conversation at all (nor will you want to).Įxercise intensity can also be determined more technically by heart rate: how frequently your heart is pumping in the span of a minute (aka beats per minute). Your sentences may be slightly broken up with intermittent, yet manageable, heavier breathing. When you move into moderate-intensity activity, while you shouldn't be totally out of breath, you won't be able to hold a conversation as easily. With low intensity, you're moving, but you're still able to be conversational, says William Smith, MS, NSCA-CSCS, author of Exercises for Cardiac Recovery. The talk test is probably the easiest way to measure intensity, since you only need to figure out how easy or hard it is to talk during whatever activity you're doing.

The three levels progress from easiest to hardest, and there are two ways to measure them, either the 'talk test' or by measuring heart rate. Intensity correlates with how hard you're working-or really, how hard your heart is working-when you exercise.

#MODERATE INTENSITY EXERCISE HOW TO#

We asked health and fitness experts to break them down, explain why they matter, and share how to apply them to your daily life.Ġ1 of 04 An Overview of Exercise Intensity Knowing what each exercise intensity means and learning how to structure your fitness routine accordingly will help you get most from the exercise you do. But how do you know for sure that your movement of choice really is vigorous enough? Is your level of aerobic activity too vigorous? Is high-intensity always best, or will a good low-impact walk get the job done? Do the same guidelines apply to both beginners and fitness buffs? So many questions. But it can be tricky to understand exactly what type of activity falls into which intensity bucket.įor example, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior, which recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week (that's about 21 to 43 minutes per day) or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise per week for able-bodied adults.

Exercise and physical activity is generally categorized into three different types of intensity: low, moderate, and high (sometimes called 'vigorous').

And it's not just about how much movement and what type of movement you do-it's also about how intensely you do that movement. Getting fit is all about moving your body.

Moderate intensity exercise